“I think we’re at a moment right now, and we hear it from the states, the states want to continue moving,” Rachael Nealer, the former acting director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, said. She is now a member of the board of directors for the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE).
The federal government, under the second Donald Trump administration, has made no secret of its unwillingness to show the same support for the transition to electric vehicles as the former Joe Biden administration. Purchase incentives like the $7,500 federal tax credit will stop at the end of September, while policy directives like California’s plan to end the sale of new gas vehicles by 2035 have been halted.
However, these headwinds, Nealer said, have not altered the willingness of California and other states to assert their own pro-EV policies, lining up new partnerships and program models to continue to accomplish transportation innovation goals.
States like Colorado are standing out for their high rates of EV adoption, focusing on building partnerships across sectors. Colorado has a goal of putting nearly 1 million EVs on roadways by 2030. This goal is paired with a set of programs and policies, which include a statewide education and information campaign.
“It’s collaboration. It’s a huge team-group effort across the entire state,” Carrie Atiyeh, a principal at Golden Strategic Solutions, and the former associate director of transportation at the Colorado Energy Office, said during a recent webinar to examine the state’s EV strategy. “I really think this is an opportunity for states to really … be able to offer those tax incentives, if possible.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently reasserted the Golden State’s mission to phase out gas-powered cars, despite the steps Congress has taken to blunt policies like the Advanced Clean Cars regulation.
The Center for Sustainable Energy, a national nonprofit focused on expanding clean transportation, will administer the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP), funded by $55 million from the California Energy Commission. The program will provide rebates to charge point operators and others developing charging infrastructure, particularly in areas of the state where it’s still not profitable to locate a charger.
“We try to deploy and incentivize chargers across the state equitably. We don’t want to leave any communities behind,” said Evan Wright, CSE director of electric vehicle infrastructure and operations. “The paradox comes into play, where in the rural communities, there’s not a lot of people, there’s not a lot of EV registrations, so there’s also not a lot of demand for chargers.”
Putting together these types of funding models and partnerships are the kinds of solutions that will prevent EV adoption from stalling, Nealer stressed.
“How we are continuing this momentum is really people-powered. It’s not just government policies, from the top down. It’s also from the bottom up,” Nealer said. “I think a lot is shifting to states, and to cities.
“I think we have a lot of work ahead of us,” she said. “I think we have a lot of really great people. I think we have a lot of great momentum that we can continue to utilize, even if it’s not in the way that we expected.”
